Fearing for their livelihoods, they had trudged day and night across the country to bring their protest to the capital and today the anger of Spain’s coal miners spilled over into violence on the streets of Madrid.
As the miners marched down the city’s main boulevards, chanting, waving banners, brandishing sticks and setting off fire crackers amid clouds of thick smoke, they were confronted by riot police.

Some threw and bottles at the police who were trying to contain them. Volleys of rubber bullets were fired into the crowds in response, with dozens of protestors led away in handcuffs, some with blood streaming down their faces. More than 20 people were injured, including police officers, demonstrators and onlookers.

Just a few streets away, Mariano Rajoy was outlining and then having to defend his latest programme of cuts, the toughest round of austerity measures since Spain’s transition to democracy. “I know the measures are not pleasant but they are imperative,” the Prime Minister told Spain’s congress.